2011 archive
Tablet Wars 0
Toys. All toys.
Andy Borowitz reports:
The E2, as its called, looks very similar to its predecessor, but in the words of the company spokesman who unveiled it at the TED conference in Long Beach, “This is not your father’s Etch-a-Sketch.”
(snip)
“The Etch-a-Sketch 2 is more than just another tablet,” said Tracy Klugian, spokesman for Ohio Art, the manufacturer of the E2. “It is going to totally change the way you think about completely unnecessary devices.”
Details at the link.
Colorblind to Color Lines 0
Charles A. Gallagher muses on the myth of a colorblind (post-racial?) society.
Honestly, anyone who thinks race or ethnic background is not still a significant factor in the day-to-day life of almost every American is not colorblind.
He or she is just plain blind.
Here’s a bit of the column:
I have witnessed such pushback, almost exclusively from my white students, when discussing racial inequality in the university classroom. Students challenge any talk about institutional racism with the “What about Obama?” retort, which implies we are beyond race because there is a black man in the White House. This is a fair question from 18-year-old college students, many of whom were raised in almost exclusively white, middle-class suburbs. But we must realize that for many whites of all ages, “What about Obama?” is now the default answer to questions about racial equality in the United States.
Afterthought:
“What about Obama?” indeed. The wingnut rhetoric against him reeks racism.
I’m a Southern boy. I know the code.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Society 0
Just down the road a piece in Suffolk:
Overall, taxable property shrank in value from $9.04 billion to $8.84 billion. It’s the third consecutive year assessments have declined.
I believe that, on Wall Street, this is known as creating value–or some such mumbo jumbo for making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
The short-term weekly figures getting a little better. (Link fixed.)
Among the reasons for increased optimism about the labor market in coming months has been a recent drop in initial claims, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told lawmakers this week. Companies added 200,000 jobs in February, while unemployment rose to 9.1 percent, economists project a Labor Department report to show tomorrow.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure, dropped to 388,500, the lowest since the week ended July 12, 2008, from 401,250 last week. It was also the first time the monthly average has been below 400,000 since July 2008.
The number of people continuing to collect jobless benefits unexpectedly decreased by 59,000 in the week ended Feb. 19 to 3.77 million.
QOTD 0
John Irving, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Just when you begin thinking of yourself as memorable, you run into someone who can’t even remember having met you.
Huckaster 0
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
If you don’t want to spend the whole three and a quarter minutes watching, fast-forward to the two minute mark.
Via The Richmonder.
Economic Ignorance 0
Writing at the Guardian, Anya Schiffrin considers why business news fails to inform. One possible reason: focusing on the small picture:
Never Quit 0
Remember all those happy-looking retirees in those bathtubs on the telly vision?
They are working actors, probably getting paid minimum scale:
Read the whole thing, especially the part about why the move to 401k’s turned out to be a scam and a fraud has failed the holders of 401k-based retirement plans.
Booty Cull 2
Language changes.
Not always for the better.
Now “booty,” a word that sets off snickers in Sunday school, will be replaced by the “spoils” of war when the newest edition of the New American Bible, the English-language Catholic Bible, comes out on Ash Wednesday, March 9.
Other Persons’ Bedrooms . . . 0
. . . seems to be where Republicans wish to be.
Keep them out.
From Atrios:
He was commenting about this, but it also could preface this: